MoMA has just posted the 1911 Biograph comedy JOSH'S SUICIDE on its website. The film was directed by Mack Sennett and stars Fred Mace. The upload is a sharp new scan off MoMA's preservation 35mm, and has a new musical score. You can watch this extremely rare split-reeler at mo.ma/joshssuicide.

Thanks for the heads up, Ben! The IMDB credits Lehrman as co-director. Any thoughts on that?

Bob

New and vigorous impulses seem to me to be at work in it,[the cinema] and doubtless before long it will drop all slavish copying of the stage and strike out along fresh paths. -- Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree

These credits come from the Biograph Company documents on deposit at The Museum of Modern Art, which make no mention of Lehrmann as co-director. When we were researching D.W. Griffith and the Biograph Company thirty (!!) years ago, my co-authors and I did not have access to the film materials at MoMA, as they has not yet been preserved in viewable form, and there is no material on this title in the Paper Print Collection at LoC; thus, we were unable to make any cast identifications. Clearly, the lead is played by Fred Mace, and Eddie Dillon is also in the cast. More identifications, anyone?

Yes, Charles West is in the opening scene, as well as inside the bus at the end, when everyone is laughing at the wife's suitor/friend as he is being tossed by Mace. As for your other possible ID's, sorry to say, none of them are here. McDowell and Mailes were working for Griffith on THE ADVENTURES OF BILLY on these very same days, but on different locations, and neither MacPherson or Normand are in the film, although one of the young women with Mace is most definitely Normand-like, in both appearance and performance. I would also note that the waiters in the cafe are J. Jiquel Lanoe and W.C. "Spike" Robinson. One of the problems in determining the casts of Sennett films in 1911 is the simple fact that, until now, they have been almost completely unavailable for research, and so many of these actors are being seen for the first time in over 100 years.

Hi Steve Massa! I see who you think may be Claire McDowell in the opening party scene (she's the one with the tray of food), and you may be right. I do remember an actress at Biograph in 1910/11 who looked very much like McDowell - dark hair and strong features - who we could never ID. I think this is that "unknown" actress, but you may very well be correct, and Claire was somehow doing double-duty for Biograph that day.

I think that Lehrman was with Carl Laemmle's IMP at this time. There's a gap in Lehrman's known roles in front of the camera at Biograph from THE BLIND PRINCESS AND THE POET (08/17/1911) and IOLA'S PROMISE (03/14/1912) when it appears that he was directing at IMP. His one known film there, BEAT AT HIS OWN GAME, was released on March 2, 1912.